by Kenya Wright
“He’s looking for you. He’s turning up every stone to find you and each time he doesn’t see you, he screams your name. This man isn’t nice. Is he?”
My lip quivered. “I don’t think you’re talking about the same person. He isn’t—”
“He is a bad one.”
Hex and Alvarez entered the studio. She released me and blinked a few times. The gray film disappeared and revealed those brown pupils from before.
“Who is she talking about?” Hex asked. His confident demeanor from earlier had shifted to a weird display of unease. He didn’t stand up straight anymore. He had his shoulders hunched forward. Defeat creased near the worried lines around his eyes.
“I don’t know.” My fingers shook. I hugged myself, protecting my body from the cold around me and looked at her. “Who are you and why did your eyes do that strange thing?”
Alvarez rubbed his whole face with his big hand. “Grandma, why don’t you go back to your cottage and rest? I’ll take care of this.”
She raised her hands in the air. “You take care of everything when I’m right here to help.”
“I don’t need your help. I have everything under control.”
“You have nothing but black shadows and gray clouds all over this big house. Bad things are in these walls! All of my fruit and vegetables rotted just like that. Yesterday, there was a good crop coming. Now it’s all gray and brown. Everything is dead. The earth has responded. The gods are angry.”
He sighed. “Grandma—”
“No one listens to me. I said girls would die and here they go—”
Dead girls? There was a corpse in that body bag!
“First this girl and now my garden is gone. This is a sign that more dead ones will come—”
“That’s enough.” Alvarez’s voice rose, but it seemed forced as if he’d used it with his grandma as a final option. “You’re scaring Elle and stressing out Hex. You and I can talk about this later.”
She formed her lips into a straight line and placed her closed fists on her hips. “And will you give me the hearts to break the curse?”
Did she say hearts? Did she freaking say curse!?
I edged back.
“Yes, but only if you stop talking and go back to your cottage.” Alvarez glared at her.
She shifted her scowl to a pleased smile. “You’re a good boy, such a good one.” She faced me. “Nice meeting you, Elle. We’ll talk about the bad man later. I have things for men like him, stuff to protect you. I can’t use the herbs in my garden anymore. They’re tainted with evil now but—”
Alvarez cleared his throat. “Please, Grandma.”
“Again nice to meet you, Elle.” She waved goodbye.
I could only bob my head as she left. When their grandma had shut the door and her cheery whistles sounded beyond the walls, Alvarez directed his gaze to me. “Who is this bad guy that she’s talking about?”
“What the hell happened to her eyes and why was there someone screaming outside? And what does she mean vegetables are evil?”
“Answer my question first.”
“No. I don’t think so.” I held up a finger at him. “She said something about dead girls, hearts, and a curse. And that stuff is evil. What is she talking about?”
“My grandma is eccentric.”
“Her eyes did weird things. That’s more than eccentric. It’s scary.”
“It’s a trick she learned to do when she was a child. It helped her seem more authentic when she would tell fortunes at carnivals and fairs.”
“Bullshit,” I blurted. “Her hands were cold and everything seemed weird. I’ve never felt that way before. It was creepy.”
Alvarez raised his hand to stop my rant. “You’re avoiding my questions while I’ve answered yours.”
“Answered mine?” I touched my chest. “Why are there dead girls? Was that what the EMT was pushing out to the ambulance today? Am I in danger or something?”
Hex snapped his attention to his brother. “What is she talking about?”
“Nothing,” Alvarez said through clenched teeth.
I looked at Hex. “There was a body bag on a gurney that the EMT took to his vehicle.”
“There wasn’t anything in it,” Alvarez said.
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care. Now what man is my grandma talking about? She said someone calls you Ellie and is looking for you.”
If he isn’t going to be truthful with me, then I won’t be with him.
“I don’t know who she’s talking about.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Yes. You do.”
“Actually, this is just like these dead girls, I think. All some little fake mystery that’s not true.”
“There are no dead girls. My grandma just thinks that there will be.”
“Excuse me?”
“She believes she sees visions and in one she saw dead girls.”
A cold shiver ran up my spine. “Do her visions usually come true?”
“Elle, this is a ridiculous conversation. You do know that there’s no such thing as magic, right?” Alvarez tossed me a grin, but it seemed forced.
“You’re still not answering my question. Do her visions come true?” I threw that question at Hex, since Alvarez refused to be straight with me.
Hex sighed. “Sometimes they come true. Sometimes they don’t, but she doesn’t see you dying. She sees something else for you.”
“What?”
“She said something about you being the light for our darkness. I’m not really sure what she meant.” Hex shrugged.
Alvarez waved his hands. “We’re done discussing grandma and her ridiculous visions. Let’s get this straight right now. There was no dead body earlier, nor dead girl to come. Elle, you are safe here. I can guarantee it as long as you’re honest with me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I raised one eyebrow.
“Who’s this guy that my grandma is talking about?”
“Why does it matter if you said that what your grandma sees is ridiculous and not true?”
“She has a point, Al.” Hex tossed him a wicked grin. “And if there was a dead person earlier, you’d better let me know.”
“No one died on this property!”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re lying.”
Alvarez took a step forward and stopped as if restraining himself. Hex lowered down to the ground, folded his legs, and stuck his thumb into his mouth.
Not a good sign.
A strange humming fled from his lips as he shut his eyes. With so many odd things happening, I decided to grab my bags, figure out where I’d placed the cab driver’s card, and call him to pick me up immediately. I had no idea where I was going or who I could get to help me until the end of summer, but this situation balanced on the edge of strange and dangerous. If I continued with this job further, then something would be stripped from me. Whether my sanity or my life, something would be ripped from my core, and after being with Michael I didn’t think I had anything left inside of me to live without.
So I left with determination in my steps. Alvarez’s gaze followed me, but he didn’t attempt to stop me when I reached the door. “Where are you going?”
“Somewhere less dangerous.”
He trailed behind me as I rushed through the studio. Hex’s strange humming flowed out with us. I didn’t allow myself to even focus on the reason why a grown man in coveralls would be sitting on the floor, sucking his thumb, and buzzing out an incomprehensible tune. If I did, I would lose it. I’d been dealt crazier things in life. Besides, the art world incited madness everywhere an enthusiast looked. However, dead bodies, a seer voodoo grandma, dark prophetic visions, and a bizarre responsive artist were just too much for my head to contain. I could take two or less, but all together was too much.
Now where will I go? I can’t go back home or to Dad’s. You counted on that. Didn’t you, Michael, me not knowing where to go? Well, I won’t be going back to y
ou.
I bit my lip, picked up the bag I’d dropped outside of Hex’s studio, and continued down the pebbled path outlined in lilies. Alvarez stayed a few feet behind me with his hands resting in his pants’ pockets. A few of the gardeners eyed me and whispered to the person next to them as they continued to take care of the flowers. Once I got out of the gates, I would pull out my phone and call the cab.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you making sure I’m leaving?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Meaning?”
“I’m not sure if I want you to leave or not.”
“That’s weird. Earlier, you seemed certain that I should only stay a week and no more.”
“My grandma said you weren’t in any danger. I think she’s right.”
“Why?” I rounded the corner and started up the path that headed to the many banyan trees in the front of the castle. Sunlight peered through the branches above us. Far off, I spotted their grandma with her hands raised as she yelled foreign words at the sky. Brownish shrubs surrounded her feet. Is that the rotting garden she’s talking about? It did look like it could’ve been a garden weeks ago.
“Grandma said you’re our light and part of our salvation and that you’re not in any danger.”
“You said her visions were ridiculous.”
“I didn’t want you or Hex to worry.”
“Well, too bad. I am.” I adjusted the strap on my shoulder. “Your grandma said something about dead girls.”
“She saw them in a vision. Minutes ago while she was weeding her vegetable garden, she had another vision where there was a dead girl. Then she claims the whole garden rotted before her eyes. She screamed and hurried to find me, which would have been fine if it was only me, but instead you and Hex were around.”
I huffed. “Well, I’m glad I was or I would’ve never known that I was in danger.”
“You’re not.”
I paused and glared at him. “How can you even say that because of some vision your grandma had? And by the way, she scares me.”
“She scares most people.”
“Do you believe her?”
“About what? The garden?”
“Well, that’s a good start. Did the garden look like it was rotting before?”
He looked away for a second. “It seemed pretty normal earlier, but I wasn’t exactly focused on how ripe the vegetables appeared.”
“You’re avoiding my question.”
He met my gaze. “I answered it to my best ability.”
“Whatever.”
“Stay.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What? Why do you want me to stay now?”
“Because there are no problems that will—”
He silenced as I raised my finger. “I don’t know how you usually do things around here, but I like the truth.”
He pulled his hands out of his pockets and rubbed his face. I was starting to think that he was either extremely stressed out or rubbing his face was a nervous tell.
It could be both.
He let go of his face. “As you can see with Hex right now, he doesn’t take tense situations very well.”
That’s an understatement.
Alvarez continued, “Hex has a collection due at the end of summer. He should be focused on finishing it. We’ve already been paid. There can’t be any delay or extensions. If you’re here, I think he’ll be able to keep his mind focused on you. He seemed inspired earlier. After an hour with himself, he’ll return to his creative mania and forget about this . . . problem.”
I tapped my foot. “So you’re saying you want me to stay here so that I can keep your brother busy while you deal with dead girls?”
He moved his closed lips around like he was gritting his teeth. I almost laughed, and would have, if the situation hadn’t been so serious. Here was a man who wasn’t used to people calling him out on his crap. Sure, his grandma probably resisted, but in the end it seemed like she did what he asked. Hex appeared to break rules and whine like a child from that scene earlier in the studio when he threw his paint brushes on the floor, but Alvarez still held all the control over his brother.
“So?” I asked. “Am I right?”
Again, he rubbed his face. It was a wonder that his sculpted face never sagged due to all the rubbing.
“Just tell me the truth.” I leaned my head to the side.
“No. There are not lots of dead women. Yes. I would like you to keep my brother busy. You would still be modeling like before, but now with everything happening around me, I don’t have time to focus on him. If you’re here, he’ll be obsessed with the art, and in the end all the same results will happen. Greatness will show in his collection. You’ll be paid and everything will return to normal.”
I can’t believe I’m even considering this. But then, where the hell was I going anyway with only five hundred dollars in my pocket?
Michael had emptied all of my bank accounts. I checked at the layover in Dallas when I went to the ATM machine. It had been a risk to try and get my money anyway. I wanted him to think I was leaving the States. An ATM withdrawal in Dallas may have kept his search in the country. Either way, it had all been for nothing. When I checked my balance, the screen said zero. I yanked out all of my other debit cards and discovered the same thing. Although I’d snuck out of the house at three in the morning while he slept on top of his nude model in the studio, in less than four hours he’d discovered my letter saying I was leaving and cleared all the money from my accounts. I figured he would never take all the money I’d earned with him and knew that he wouldn’t be that cruel. I was wrong and wouldn’t be making those same mistakes again. When I got off the plane, I had ten missed calls from him.
“Will you stay?” Alvarez pulled me back to reality and the present problem at hand.
“Has there already been a dead girl on this property?”
He waited for one long silent and uncomfortable minute before he answered, “Yes.”
“Do you know who killed her?”
“No. I found her near the garden. There’s a police detective assigned to the case who’s waiting for me in my office to figure out who did it.”
“Did you know her?”
“No. I barely saw her around the grounds. Hex loves to invite many writers, artists, and models here. He calls it a colony for creative thinkers. I tend to keep my distance from his guests.”
“What did she do?”
Again, he hesitated before admitting, “She modeled for Hex and had been done for a while. I’d checked her model schedule and realized that she, along with several other models, were complete and just hanging out in the castle for fun. My assistant notified them that it was time to leave and booked them all flights for this morning. All of them left but her and a few others who remained.”
“And now she’s dead.”
“Yes, but I can guarantee you’ll be safe.”
“Why, because your grandma will be stewing hearts and doing black magic in her rotting garden?”
He grimaced. “It’s not black magic and the hearts aren’t . . . just never mind about all of that. I’m going to have a bodyguard follow you around. He’ll keep his distance to not get my brother’s attention, but he’ll always be around to protect you.”
I relaxed a little and didn’t think having a bodyguard around would be a bad thing. There was Michael after all. I didn’t think he would come at me with violence. He’d never physically hurt me, but then I’d thought that he wouldn’t take all of my money and he did. What else would he do? I’d picked working for Hex for a reason. Michael depended on my loyalty. While he knew that his cheating and blatant disrespect of our relationship had pushed me away, he probably figured I would drag myself back, like all the other times, either due to my love for him or the fact that I couldn’t survive financially without him. I always came back and hoped for a change that never occurred.
Michael would never think that I would be bold enough to model for anyone else,
especially not his arch nemesis.
That’s what Michael called Hex all the time, his arch nemesis. Michael avoided him as much as possible, so Hex’s castle would be the last place he would look for me as long as Alvarez didn’t call.
“How much did my brother promise you?” Alvarez asked.
“Five thousand a month as well as my food and lodging paid for.”
“I’ll pay you ten thousand a month and give you a weekly allowance of five hundred dollars.”
“And a bodyguard?”
“Of course.”
“If someone else is killed and I’m scared, then I leave with whatever I earned.”
“Understood.” He extended his hand out to me. “Do we have a deal?”
I gave him my hand. “I want the truth and no more lies.”
“No problem.” He wrapped his fingers around mine. His coarse skin rubbed against the pads of my fingers and delivered a shock of heat that drummed into me. My legs wobbled a little. My pattern of breathing increased. Where his grandmother’s hands froze me cold, his melted my core. The urge to tighten my hold surged within me. I’d never been that warm before, not even when I lay on the beach in the direct rays of sunlight or rested near the roar of a fireplace. I was comforted by his heat and didn’t even know I’d been so cold. I heard an intake of breath from him as he stared at our linked hands.
Did he feel the same thing I felt, this weird electric charge between us? Was I imagining this, like his grandma’s weird eyes when she touched me?
“Who is the guy that my grandma saw in her vision?” He gazed into my eyes and I looked away.
“That’s not something I would like to discuss.”
He traced his finger along the inner part of my wrist. I shivered in response. This was so inappropriate on so many levels, but I relished his touch anyway. It had been so long since anyone had placed their fingers on my skin for more than just to pose me for a painting.
“Should I have two guards watching you?” He stopped moving his finger, but didn’t release me.
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t want you to be hurt.”
“This guy has already hurt me as much as he can. He can’t do any more.”
